


As the Lab Turns

by nanda (nandamai)



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Dorkiness, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-18
Updated: 2013-04-18
Packaged: 2017-12-08 20:23:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/765607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nandamai/pseuds/nanda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Jay! You dragged me onto a Goa'uld mothership! You can ask a woman for a date!"</p>
            </blockquote>





	As the Lab Turns

Jay Felger was nervous. Jay Felger was almost always nervous, to tell the truth, but this was different. He'd been hovering around Coombs' desk for an hour.

"Oh, for the love of god," Simon said. "Will you just go ask her already?"

"But she's -- and I'm --"

"Jay! I have to give a presentation to General O'Neill and Colonel Carter in three hours! Will you please get out of my lab?"

Jay shuffled out into the hallway, and stood there until Simon shouted at him, "Jay! You dragged me onto a Goa'uld mothership! You can ask a woman for a date!"

Simon was right. Jay had fought the Goa'uld! He had shot a Jaffa! He had reprogrammed a DHD in enemy territory! With help from Colonel Carter, true, but that had been scarier than this. Hadn't it?

He scuffed down the hall. Chloe's new lab was on the same corridor as Coombs', at the far end, a few doors down from Colonel Carter's. He hadn't seen Chloe much since she'd been promoted, shortly after the Avenger fiasco. Now she was part of Dr. Lee's research group, working on something so important that Jay didn't even know what it was. It was classified. When he did see her, she was usually talking with her labmates or even, sometimes, eating in the cafeteria with one of the SG teams. They must have been connected to the classified project, Jay thought.

Colonel Carter's door was, luckily, closed, so Jay didn't have to sneak by. But Chloe's was open and she was inside, with her safety goggles on and new glasses underneath. Her lab coat was perfectly white -- Jay had spilled ketchup on his at lunch -- and she was heating a test tube with the biggest bunsen burner Jay had ever seen.

"Hi, Chloe," Jay said as he stepped inside.

Chloe looked up. "Jay! Hi!

He fidgeted. "Haven't seen you in a while," he said.

"No, I'm sorry. We're just so busy up here."

"You, uh, you like it, though? It's good?"

"It's great," she said. "Longer hours, but it's worth it." She put down the flame, set a timer, and took off her goggles. "What are you working on, Jay?"

"Oh, you know, the usual. I have a brilliant idea for a time manipulator that I've already discussed with Colonel Carter. She said she can't wait to see it." What she'd actually said was that she could give him a week and a small budget. "Of course, my new lab assistant's no help," he said, smiling, hoping that she'd take that as a compliment.

"That's what you always said about me, Jay." Chloe smiled. She had a very pretty smile. Why had Jay never noticed that while she was still working in his lab? "Dwight's very well qualified. I'm sure he'll pick everything up quickly."

"Eventually," Jay admitted. "He'll never be as smart as you, though." Or as pretty.

"That's sweet, Jay." She sat in front of her laptop and opened a file. "I'm sorry to have to work while we talk. I don't really get breaks anymore."

"Oh, yeah, that's, no, I completely understand. Same here, you know."

She seemed to get involved in something on the screen, and Jay started to chicken out. But he was a hero! He'd saved SG1! He'd saved the gate system! He'd saved Dr. Jackson!

"Uh, Chloe?"

She looked up.

"I was just wondering if, uh, if you might, I mean, if you wanted, er, if -- ifyouwanttohavedinnerwithmesometime."

"Oh, Jay, I'm so sorry." She did look sorry. That must be a good sign. "I'm seeing someone." 

"You are?" But he quickly realized there was too much shock in his voice. He'd made it aound like an insult. That was bad. "I mean, that's great. Uh. I'm happy for you."

"Thanks. It's too bad that ..."

Hope swelled in his chest. "Too bad that what?"

"Nothing. Sorry."

Jay's best hope now was that her someone was one of the geeks, preferably the even geekier geeks than he was. "Who is it?" he asked in a high voice. "You know, if you don't mind my, uh, asking."

Her cheeks grew pink. "It's Captain Celi from SG7. I'm sorry."

"Captain Celi?" Celi was a PhD. in biochem on top of being a Marine and was, therefore, a lot less geeky than Jay. And he was hot, not that Jay looked at guys that way, because he didn't, but Celi was the kind of guy a lot of women looked at that way. "I mean, that's great, really. It's, well, it's going well, then?"

Her cheeks grew pinker. "Yes." Jay wasn't good at interpreting other people's reactions, but even he could tell Chloe was happy.

"That's good, that's good. Well, I, uh, I'd better -- I's to dot, T's to cross, you know how it --"

Somebody rapped on the door jamb and both Jay and Chloe looked up.

"Oh, sorry. " It was Lieutenant Hoagland from SG7. From Chloe's boyfriend's team. That was a really weird thought. Jay didn't like that thought at all.

"No, it's fine, I, uh, I was just -- um. Bye."

"Bye, Jay," Chloe said.

Jay nodded awkwardly and hurried out of the lab. As he left, he heard Hoagland say, "Poor guy has a crush on you. You coming upstairs for lunch?"

Jay scrambled away. "Well," he said to himself back in the safety of his lab, "Dr. Vega is cute."

Dwight appeared from the back room. "Don't bother," he said. "I already tried. She's going out with Major Doyle."

Jay beat his head on his lab bench.

**Author's Note:**

> When I started this, I expected Chloe to say yes. She had other ideas.


End file.
